I’m not one to write reviews with spoilers but major spoilers ahead.

HOW DARE YOU! HOW DARE! The ending was one of the address I’ve read in a while and I read a lot of things that have a sad ending. Holly Jackson has once again written a masterpiece and I’m so glad to be able to read this early. I did not suspect Billy’s dad in the end but damn was it a good twist. I’m so pissed off that jet didn’t get to find out before she died, but I’m so glad Billy was there for her through the end. I feel for Billy and jet so much and can’t believe jets and Billy’s families were so fucked up. For real though, HOW DARE! 10/10 book would recommend if you like having your heart demolished.

4.5 stars!

First of all, thank you SO much to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group for approving my request for an eARC copy of this book. You literally made my year when I saw my request had been approved.

I was so eager to get my hands on this book, not only because it’s written by the one and only Holly Jackson (author of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder trilogy, objectively her most popular books), but the concept of this book was so intriguing to me. The main character of this book, Jet, is murdered with three hits to her head.

But she’s not quite dead yet (wink wink).

Long story short that is explained with a bunch of medical terms, the injury will result in a fatal brain aneurysm in seven days time. And Jet, a twenty seven year-old who has spent her entire life yearning to accomplish something big without really accomplishing anything, plans to solve her own murder before she kicks the bucket.

I’ll be honest. The first couple chapters of this book had me worried. Jet was such an unbearable main character at the beginning, trying to be quirky and cool when she really just seemed annoying. But all she needed was a blow to the head and a little perspective because she really started to grow on me for the rest of the book.

And then there was Billy, her perfect partner in crime. Man, I love Billy. I genuinely think it’s impossible not to love him. He deserves the world. In the words of Jet, he’s “poor, sweet Billy.”

The plot of this book was steady until ramping up towards the end. I was hooked early on, following along with the clues discovered by our main characters, trying to piece together the case alongside them. I had my guesses and my predictions, and I did figure it out about 90% in. It took a little bit of the ending’s thunder away for me, but there was definitely enough thunder to go around. Only Holly Jackson can craft an ending so heartbreaking yet ultimately satisfying.

If you liked AGGGTM, you’ll probably like this book too. It has its similarities while also having enough differences to bring something new. Jet reminded me of a much spunkier version of Pip. And I can definitely see glimpses of Ravi in Billy’s character. But between the two couples, I gotta say, Jet and Billy are my favorite.

I honestly wasn’t sure I was going to like this book. I’ve read Jackson’s other books and while I am not a huge fan they were in no way “bad books”. I don’t even remember requesting this new book- it might have been late night scrolling to see what’s new. Well let me say am I glad for late night bed scrolls because this book was a ride. It started off slow, but as I kept reading the book got better. The ending had me screaming!!! Overall loved the book!!

Thank you Ballantine and Netgalley for this eARC, these opinions are my own! I loved the concept of this one! Jet’s a little lost in life, always planning to get to things later, she’s 27 she’s got plenty of time. It’s Halloween and all she wants is to go home instead of being with all these people. She finally gets her wish and just as she gets home she’s hit from behind in the head. She wakes up in the hospital having survived and she can still hear her skull cracking. Only did she survive? Turns out she woke up but’ll still be dead within seven days. But she’s not going to waste her time, she’s going to finish something, she’ll solve her own murder. Was it her ex? Her constantly disappointed parents? Her douche of a brother? Her ex-best friend turned sister in law? The boy next door? Or any number of the townspeople who hate her family? With everyone hiding things any of them may have been the one who killed her. Time is running out and she’ll stop at nothing, no matter the danger, to solve her murder. This was so thrilling especially with the added element of the mc only having a few days to live and all the complicated feelings and emotions that come with that! Jet’s dry wit and humor, especially surrounding her death, had for plenty of hilarity as well! Suspenseful, gutting, pulse pounding, and funny! Holly Jackson’s adult debut is a hit and I consumed it!

Really great plot. Jet was murdered but her death won’t happen for a week and she’s determined to find her killer before it happens. My struggle with the book is that I didn’t like Jet. I didn’t like the way she interacted with her family or former friends. Clearly the point was to highlight the struggle and strain between them but at her age she was still acting like a child.

Holly Jackson’s first adult novel did NOT disappoint. I raced through this one in about 24 hours and once I crossed over the 1/3 threshold I honestly couldn’t put it down.

I wasn’t exactly sure about this once prior to starting since it’s a bit different in the sense you already know how it ends and who dies? However having Jet solve her own murder was pretty genius. She’s obviously the most motivated to prove herself despite the ticking time bomb of an aneurysm giving her a week’s time deadline.

This story was complex with several layers, uncovering more and more as your read—just the way I like my thrillers. Nothing was extremely far-fetched or unbelievable either which is truly a pet peeve of mine, I like everything to be realistic.

Jet was an incredible FMC and had a dark humor vibe going on probably due to the whole death sentence and family trauma. I absolutely adored Jet and Billy teaming up and getting to relive their childhood friendship for one final week.

Even though the ending killed me, I really did love this one. It’s one I haven’t stopped thinking/talking about since I put it down. Thanks a million to Net Galley, the publisher and the author for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinions!

This book right here…oh my word. This one was a wild ride!!

The tension, suspense, the amount of secrets, and mysterious moments. It was one that had me on edge and I couldn’t help myself from guessing. I was so WRONG with this one.

You would want to read this one. Add it to your TBR collection and make it your top priority because this is one you won’t be able to put down. You’d love to be playing guess who!

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine for this ARC!!

What do you do with the time you have left after you find out a traumatic brain injury will kill you within days? For Jet, it is catching the one who did this to her. Solving her own murder.

After a vicious attack that left her for dead, Jet is determined, despite objections from her family, to refuse surgery that will almost certainly kill her, to unravel the mystery of her attack. With the help of her oldest friend, Billy, they track down every lead and analyze every lie until they get to the truth. Jet's injury informs the urgency of their search. Finding her killer is her dying wish and last request, and Billy would do anything for her.

Wow - what a ride. A seemingly normal suburb family is surprisingly dark and twisted, and history is never erased, only buried, ready to be uncovered again someday.

This story is exciting and tragic, and I couldn't stop turning pages. Jet's fate is sealed, but that doesn't make her story any less interesting. In fact, it maybe makes it more interesting. If it weren't for her insistence and knowledge of those around her, who knows if the case would ever be solved? No one cares more about a crime than the victim herself, right?

Readers of crime mysteries will love this unique take on a murder investigation. Slam dunk, Jackson.

Note:: I received an early copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Well, I'm probably going to be in the minority on this, but I unfortunately struggled with this one. It read like a YA with aged up characters - there's no amount of convincing that would make me accept that the MC is 27 years old. She may as well be 17.

4.0 stars. Very much worth the read. I enjoyed the twists and turns, the ones I guessed and the ones I didn't. Some really great characters. My only complaint is that I did feel like it read like a YA book, but this is her first adult book so that makes sense. I think Jackson is a very good author and will definitely read more.

GAHHHH this premise was SPECTACULAR and we all knew what was going to happen but it still fricken got me. I want to give Billy a big hug.

The beginning was a little slow but I am a sucker for the main character doing the digging and finding clues so when that started to pick up I was engrossed. In true Holly Jackson fashion, Not Quite Dead Yet is a riveting mystery with a teeny tiny romantic interest and a gut punch/jaw drop at the end. You can't possibly put the book down and then everything comes together all at once (or falls apart, depending how you look at it) and you're left with a ~wow did that really just happen~

I have mixed feelings about Jet. I think based on her actions she could have been a believable 18 year old but being older is kind of integral to her character development and the motivation behind the whole story. So I guess I wish she came across more mature. She was bold and determined and fearless but she was also annoying and reckless.

Billy was an absolute wholesome smush, Dianne was really getting on my nerves, and Luke was just problematic. I think every character was flawed in some way which made this all realistic.

The final reveal I could see coming (certainly not the last moments though holy moly) but to be fair I didn't suspect it until close to the end. I just wish the delivery wasn't so...well, monologuey. I DID appreciate having everything spelled out because sometimes I can't keep up and all the clues get lost in the sauce. In this case I was pretty much on the same page (kudos to Holly for that because there were lots of moving parts) but delivering it in a whole spiel was a little underwhelming.

(Side note: I loved how Holly described things in The Reappearance of Rachel Price and the same note of ~wow this is good writing~ was not as present to me and I was hoping for it. And I was getting REALLY tired of reading that characters "sniffed" it was not a necessary descriptor in most of the 88 cases.)

HUGE thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts.

I’ve been a fan of Holly Jackson since reading the series A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder so the new adult title was a no brainer to add to my list of must- reads.

Jet is fierce and feisty and seems kind of lost when we first meet her. She has done nothing in her life so far for herself and she is frustrated. When she is violently attacked in a safe space, Jet unflinchingly understands what she needs to do. The catastrophic head injury will kill her in a week, and she is more determined than she has ever been to find her killer. Along the way she also finds herself and a new friend.

First and foremost, thank you to NetGalley for the ARC! I'm looking forward to doing more of these in the future! I was hooked from the very first chapter, instant goosebumps. I thought I had everything figured out early on but boy was I wrong. This book took me by surprise in the best (and most devastating) way. Both the plot and the characters had a depth of layers that I was not emotionally prepared for. I don't think I will ever fully emotionally recover from this book, and I'll always remember what happened that Halloween night.

Not Quite Dead Yet follows Jet who on Halloween night she is attacked by unseen intruder. She surfers a catastrophic head injury. She only has a week before and aneurysm will kill her. So she decides that she will spend the next week solving her almost murder.

Holly Jackson was one of my go to YA thriller authors; and now she is my go thriller author. This was her first non YA thriller and this was so good!!! I love her YA books I have loved them all. But this book was on a whole other level. It had everything her YA books do but with more adult themes. This book was wild like wild wild. I truly had no idea what was gonna happen. This book was so good!!! This is definitely my favorite Holly Jackson book, but I highly suggest all of them. This was a fantastic thriller with so many twist and turns.

Thank you so much, Holly Jackson, and Ballantine books for the ARC of this. This comes out on July 22!

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Holly Jackson is one of my favorite authors and I usually and am automatic buy, but this book was just not good. It had a really interesting idea but did not execute it well. First off, the main character was quite possible the worst main character ever, she was so unlikable. I thought that with this being an adult book that it would get more mature and that touch on some darker things but honestly this book feels more YA than AGGGTM, except the characters' ages. The main character was very immature and I genuinely had to reread about her age because she was acting like a middle schooler. The dialogue and characters were pretty cringey as well. This book was pretty boring until like 60% through. I'm not sure if I am just good at pattern recognition or if this book is super predictable because I had pretty much everything figured out by 20%.

I feel like the author also didn't do much research on the setting because I am a local to that area and what she described is nothing like the real thing. I think if people want to use real life places then they need to do the research.

While I will continue to read Holly's books, I won't be recommending this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for this ARC! The publishing date is july 22, 2025. This review will be published on Goodreads on May 30, 2025. Excited to receive early because I love her writing! I found it to be very fast paced and easy to follow. Nearing the end, i did put a couple things together and guessed the twist correctly. I think that all of the clues were pretty straight forward and the author wanted you to infer those things. It was a different take on a thriller and I enjoyed it. I do think the ending was a bit abrupt. I wish it had an epilogue with all of the people involved. It had all the hype i thought it would!

Jet Mason has spent her life waiting for the moment when she could make her mark & do something extraordinary. At the age of 26 she always believed she still had time, until she is attacked and left for dead in her kitchen. Now when she wakes up she learns that she has 7 days left to live & vows to use that time to find her killer. As time ticks on, will she be able to solve her murder before it’s too late or will she die never knowing the truth?

Let me preface this review by saying that you are literally told very early on that Jet is going to die, there are no ifs ands or buts about it, so you would think with having this knowledge that as a reader you would NOT become personally attached to Jet because that would just be cruel and cause you pain, but that is exactly what happens. Even knowing how Jet’s story would ultimately end, I found myself rooting for her in so many ways - that she would find her killer, that she & Billy would get together, that she’d give her dog to Billy (in my head this was what was best for pup), and every now and then that there would be some kind of miracle and Jet wouldn’t die (this one was truly wishful thinking on my part). She was tenacious, caring, sarcastic, and ultimately just trying to find herself and make her mark, all things I found myself identifying with. Her relationship with Billy really allowed her to develop more, which is hard to do in 7 days but she managed it with ease. While the easy thing for her to do would’ve been to stay home and just sit around with her family for her final days, she chose the road less traveled so to speak and put herself first and what she needed. It was both inspiring and heartbreaking in a way.

I felt that the story itself was well written and definitely kept the reader guessing about who could have been the one to kill her. Ultimately, everything tied together very well and provided closure in the right areas. There were definitely some twists and some moments you didn’t see coming which kept you intrigued and wanting to keep reading regardless of what time the clock was telling you it was.

**Thank you NetGalley and Random House for providing me with an ARC of this book**

Well, I guess I learned my lesson about bonding with one of HJ’s characters.
And it’s on me, really, because I completely forgot about *all that* between one scandal and another, without mentioning how I slowly got from thinking Jet and Billy weren’t good for each other to hard-crying about soulmates — @Gabi did try to warn me about HJ’s couples being perfect or tragic, I just didn't believe her till now.

Guys, WHAT. A. BOOK.
Not only for the mystery part of it — which was great, don't get me wrong, I was just so in it I got there before Jet could, but that doesn't minimize how amazingly chaotic this was.

Jet, she’s the core of the whole story, which is strangely written in the third person and throws you off balance from time to time because it also kinda merge with her POV.
I just respected her so much, her arrogance, her ability to stand up for herself and what she believed, but also understanding when she was wrong, and in all of this she hasn't snitched once about any of the batshit crazy things that were going on.

Queen Holly just did it again.

Thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Bantam and NetGalley, who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.

My favorite Holly Jackson book to date! Holy cow that was a ride. Jett's story is tragic. She is going to die in 7 days and she wants to solve her own murder before that happens. After a terrible attack, Jett is told (very early on and not a spoiler if you read the blub) that she doesn't have long to live. Some one in idyllic Woodstock, VT (a place I love to visit) has attacked and left her for dead. When she is released from the hospital with a death sentence, she makes it her mission to find her killer with the help of her childhood best friend. Secrets are revealed and her world starts to unravel. This book hooked me IMMEDIATLY and I didn't want it to end. Quite an example of dramatic irony and pretty brilliant for Jackson to make us root so hard for a character she has clearly told us will not survive the book. Well written, quick page turner, can't wait to see what she writes next. Thank you netgalley or this arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thank you Netgalley for giving me advanced access to this book! I was very excited to read the latest Holly Jackson release.
I have to admit the beginning was a bit slow for me and it took some time to warm up to Jet as a character. But the second half picked up quickly - so many twists and turns and strong relationships.
The suspense of Jet’s injury loomed over my head the entire book and I had to keep reminding myself that there probably wasn’t going to be a happy ending (even though there was no way i could prepare myself for what actually happens).
Such a fun concept and very thankful I could get my hands on the ebook!

3.5 stars